Stephen Bennett v. Ron Barnes

MEMORANDUM

Stephen Bennett appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . He was convicted in state court of felony murder with special circumstances, CaLPenal Code § 190.2(d), and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. On the issue for which the district court granted a certificate of appealability, Bennett argues that the evidence of the element of “reckless indifference to human life” under § 190.2(d) was insufficient to support a conviction under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 324 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), and that the California Court of Appeal unreasonably applied Jackson in holding otherwise. We review the district court’s decision de novo, and we affirm.

According to the California Supreme Court, the interpretation of § 190.2(d)’s “reckless indifference to human life” element derives from Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 , 107 S.Ct. 1676 , 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987). People v. Estrada, 11 Cal.4th 568 , 46 Cal.Rptr.2d 586 , 904 P.2d 1197, 1201 (1995). “Tison ... instructs that the culpable mental state of ‘reckless indifference to life’ is one in which the defendant ‘knowingly engag[es] in criminal…